from
03/02/2009
to
06/02/2009
Festival of Saint Agata,
Catania holds a grandiose festival for its patron saint that sees the participation of thousands of worshippers and draws up to a million people.
The saint is honoured with a number of firework displays and formal celebrations, with processions and costume parades winding through streets illuminated by kilometres of lights, bringing the charm of rituals never renounced back to the baroque city.
On the first day, the authorities pass on procession on the 18th century Senate carriage, flanked by the banners of the local municipalities and followed by the eleven “Candelore”, heavy wooden candelabra carved and gilded by the old guilds and carried on shoulder to the traditional appointment of the candle offering.
Over the following days, the saint’s bust-reliquary is taken in procession through the city streets, drawn on long ropes by about four thousand worshippers shouting “Townspeople, long live St. Agatha!”.
One of the most touching moments is the opening of the sacellum, created in the thickness of one of the cathedral walls, which houses the bust all year round. The ceremony is held before dawn when, in the crowded cathedral, the tense expectation fuelled by hymns and supplications explodes in the applause that greets the bust of the saint; this is hoisted over the altar for the solemn mass of the Aurora before being placed on a silver carriage with the casket containing the treasure of the saint and handed over to the city for two days of processions.
Gallery
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the festival in Piazza Duomo
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The carriage during the procession
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street crowded with devouts
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